Afterall
by iamashleydawn
Summary: Set during Romance Looming - except without the pesky Fates. Aaron comes to propose to Sabrina, but with a little help from Salem and Cher, she realizes it just doesn't feel right. OneShot.


So, this would be my first Sabrina story. I recently re-watched the entire series, and this song just made me think of Sabrina and Harvey, so I had to write a story for it. The song is After All by Cher and Peter Cetera. Enjoy :)

"Well here we are again,

I guess it must be fate.

We tried it on our own,

But deep inside we know,

We'd be back to set things straight."

Sabrina sighed as the song came on the radio. It wasn't that she didn't like Cher, her music was amazing, but the one song always filled her with horrible memories of a time she was truly happy, and made her wonder why she never felt like that anymore.

And she should - she was with Aaron now. He was a wonderful man, he treated her right, and the world sang when she was around him. She just felt it was a bad sign when she had to keep reminding herself of those things.

Salem padded into the room then, and glanced at Sabrina sitting at her desk, head in one hand, and a lone tear streaking down her cheek. "Sabrina?" the cat asked, jumping up onto the desk beside her.

"Oh, hey Salem," she said, not bothering to wipe away the tear stain. Salem was left to wonder if she even knew it existed.

"What's wrong?" he asked, but then the music filled his ears and he sighed. He recognized the song as well - he'd heard it so many times in the months following Sabrina's break up with Harvey that every word and nuance was committed to memory. "Oh, never mind." Actually, the thought that Sabrina was unconciously crying over the song she played to help her accept her break up with Harvey filled the black cat with immense pleasure and happiness. He had always liked Harvey - he treated him with respect, unlike Aaron who was much more of a dog person.

Sabrina looked up at him and rolled her eyes, her hand flicking over the wet patch on her cheek. "What, Salem? It's just a stupid song, nothing more. Every woman has emotional feelings when it comes on."

"And the fact that you used to play it twenty times a day to convince yourself that you and Harvey were still meant to be is just a happy coincidence?"

The cat's dry humour cut through Sabrina and she sighed, before straightening her composure and fixing her shirt. "Yeah, a coincidence. And I did not! I just happened to like the song at the time. Nothing to do with Harvey Kinkle."

He shook his head, jumping down from the desk and heading for the door. Just as he reached it, he stopped and glanced back at her, "You're fooling yourself, kid, if you ever think that second best will make you perfectly happy again."

With that he disappeared, narrowly missing the stream of sparks Sabrina sent flying after him.

"I still remember when,

Your kiss was so brand new.

Every memory repeats,

Every step I take retreats,

Every journey always

Brings me back to you."

Sabrina walked downstairs to a knock on her door. Noticing Aaron through the frosted glass, she fluffed her hair and fixed her shirt before going and answering the persistent knock.

As soon as the door was opened, Aaron came bursting inside with an anxious, highly nervous look on his face, and started talking before Sabrina could even get out a 'Hi, Aaron'.

"Sabrina, we've been dating for awhile now, and there's something we need to talk about. Or... something I need to tell you, or rather, feel it's time I asked you. It's just that, I mean." Aaron's voice faded in and out with frustration and nerves, so Sabrina put her hands on his forearms and smiled at him.

"Aaron, you're rambling," she said, grinning at him. Just as the last word left her mouth, she was brought back to a time when she had said the same thing at a high school dance dressed as Olivia Newton-John. Shaking her head, she dispelled the unwanted image of her and Harvey dancing, choosing instead to focus on the man in front of her.

"Right. The thing is, I'm doing this all wrong." Aaron stopped, gently extricating himself from Sabrina's grasp and knelt down on one knee. "I should be in this position for this to work."

Sabrina gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a streak of black fur, before Salem appeared, sitting on the back of the sofa. His yellow eyes never left hers, and she gulped, hating the doubt in the back of her mind.

"After all the stops and starts,

We keep coming back to these two hearts,

Two angels who've been rescued from the fall."

She peeled her eyes from Salem's disapproving ones and stared shockingly into Aaron's loving ones. "Aaron?" she asked, her voice quivering.

"Sabrina, I love you. I've loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you at Scorch. I know it's sudden, and I know I'm moving to LA for that job, but Sabrina I want you to come with me as my wife. Sabrina Spellman, will you marry me?" Aaron's hopeful eyes stared deep into hers, as his hand reached into his coat pocket and extracted a tiny black box. Opening it up, Sabrina's eyes widened at the gorgeous diamond ring sitting against the satin.

"I-," she stopped, suddenly not sure how to best answer, and wondering if the Salem had been right. Was second best enough to garner perfect happiness, or was it just that - second best? And was Aaron second best? She loved him, didn't she, so why couldn't her lips form the 'yes' her mind so desperately needed it to scream?

"Aaron... I wish I could, but I can't marry you." Even as the words were leaving her mouth, her mind was screaming at her to take it back, and her heart was jumping up and down for joy. In matters of love, she knew that the latter was the more accurate organ to listen to. "Oh god... I'm so sorry, but... I just can't."

Sabrina heard a tiny, muffled "YES!" coming from the cat before he disappeared, presumably to go call Harvey. The two were always in cahoots together.

Aaron stood up, closing the diamond box as he went, and trying to keep the tear from his eye. "I figured... it's Harvey, isn't it?"

She closed her eyes, turning from him and walking over to the couch.

"And after all that we've been through,

It all comes down to me and you.

I guess it's meant to be,

Forever, you and me,

After all."

"No, yes, I don't know. It's not just Harvey, although he is a contributing factor, I won't lie. But I haven't been really happy in a really long time. I've been almost happy, and mostly happy, and even just plain happy, but never perfectly happy." She turned back to Aaron, "And it's not fair to you. You are an amazing man, but we're not meant to be. We're not soul mates, Aaron."

He nodded, coming over and taking both of her hands in his. "Never assume that almost happy is good enough for you. I love you, and I only want you to be happy."

Sabrina smiled, sadly, "You're not mad at me?"

He just smiled back at her, before leaning in to kiss her cheek. Sabrina noticed for the first time that she had never gotten the same thrill from that as she had for her first love. "I could never be mad at you. I hope he's everything you've ever dreamed of, you deserve it."

She pulled him in for a tight hug, whispering into his ear, "You do, too," before he was gone. Sabrina collapsed onto the sofa, head in both hands, but not crying. She was simply breathing deeply, trying to feel as though her world hadn't just been rocked off balance again. She did not want a repeat performance of the Bedroom French Circus.

"When love is truly right,

This time it's truly right,

It lives from year to year.

It changes as it goes,

Oh and on the way it grows,

But never disappears."

Harvey got there an hour later, Sabrina still in the same position on the couch. He walked over and sat down beside her, not sure what was going to happen now.

"The thing is, Harvey, I'm not happy," Sabrina said, lifting her head and looking over at him. Her eyes were red, not puffy, just tired, and her lips were curled down into a frown.

"Okay," Harvey said, not sure what that statement meant.

"I haven't been happy in a while. Not truly happy, as if nothing else in this world mattered except that moment." She jumped up off the couch and started pacing. "I mean, there have been moments that I was really happy, and they were great, but always something stood in my way." Lifting her hand she started ticking things off on her fingers, "When I started college, living on my own, I was pretty happy - but I was alone, didn't know anyone, and this guy I had been seeing had just dumped me a couple months before." Harvey looked a little sheepish, but she ignored him.

"Then when me and Josh finally got together, I was happy, except he was leaving for a job in Prague. He gets back, again happy, but tells me he's going back to Prague to work indefinitely."

Salem came from the kitchen and sat beside Harvey on the sofa, both watching Sabrina's break down in front of them.

"When me and Josh exchanged I Love You's, it would have been perfect, except for the fact that he couldn't have loved me for me, because he was too stunned to realize who I really was. When my mother showed up, no way could I be truly happy, cause she was a ball of wax!" Sabrina's voice rose with each declaration, and Harvey and Salem glanced at each other in slight terror.

"Get my first real job - my boss is horrible and I'm nervous as hell. Meet a great guy, and I can't even say yes to a date because I'm so messed up from all the rest of it that I'm playing in Wonderland." She stopped then, and whirled around to lock eyes with Harvey. "What it all comes down to, is that I haven't been happy since before you broke up with me. The last perfect moment I have is us getting back together and you saying that you were 'under my spell'."

"Always just beyond my touch,

Though I needed you so much,

After all what else is living for."

Harvey's eyes softened then, and he stood up, walking over to Sabrina and pulling her in for a hug. "Sabrina, I love you," he whispered into her hair, and she was ecstatic when four little words made her entire body jump in happiness.

"Say it again," she whispered back, pulling back just enough to look into his brown eyes.

He grinned, his face lighting up in the goofy Harvey way, "I love you, Sabrina."

She grinned back, "I love you too, Harvey Kinkle." With those words the two finally met in a kiss that sent sparks flying out of Sabrina's finger and surronding them for a moment before bursting into fireworks.

Harvey pulled away from Sabrina and stepped back a half-step. "Sabrina, I don't have a ring or anything, but I want to marry you. Today, tomorrow, whenever, I want to spend the rest of my life loving you." Sabrina grinned, pointed her finger and Harvey's hand and a small black box appeared there. He looked down and smiled, lifting the box containing her promise ring and opening it. "It's not even real - I got it in high school."

"I don't care, it's my ring." He slipped it on her left ring finger, sealing the engagement in a kiss.

"After all the stops and starts,

We keep coming back to these two hearts,

Two angels who've been rescued from the fall."

When Morgan and Roxie got home that night, Harvey had already left. Roxie was the first to notice the ring on Sabrina's finger as she was cutting up vegetables.

"Ahh! Aaron proposed and you're getting married?" She said, running over and grabbing Sabrina's left hand.

Sabrina laughed, "No, me and Aaron broke up today when he asked me to marry him. It didn't feel right."

Morgan, also checking out the ring, looked at Sabrina confused, "But he let you keep the ring?"

She shook her head, "No, this ring belongs to Harvey. I'm marrying him."

Roxie threw up her hands and cheered, "It's about time!"

Morgan also cheered, "Yeah, really, the cat could have even told you that you two belong together." She glanced down a the ring again, "But you should get a different ring, that one's a fake." Roxie and Sabrina both laughed.

"After all that we've been through,

It all comes down to me and you.

I guess it's meant to be,

Forever, you and me.

After all."

Please review and leave me lots of love! I liked writing a Sabrina story :)


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